Anni Zylstra

Willow Basketry
​​www.weavetheday.com
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Anni Zylstra is a basketmaker and teaching artist currently growing, harvesting, and weaving willow into heirloom quality baskets at their farm on the West Fork of the Kickapoo River. Anni's work is rooted in traditional, hundreds-of-years-old basketry techniques interwoven with imaginative, contemporary colors and textures. Their work is an exploration of past and present, and a celebration of the web of life around them. In their baskets, willows native to this watershed merge with heritage European varieties cultivated for hundreds of years, all of which tell the story of a particular season on the land.

Annie's work begins in the field, where they wild-coppice and grow all the materials they use in their work on or near their small riverside farm. All of their work is made from trees which are still living, as basketry willows are traditionally managed through live coppicing to encourage new growth year after year. As a whole-process artist, all of their material is cut by hand, sorted, graded, cured, re-soaked, mellowed, and eventually, woven into functional, one-of-a-kind pieces that can be used and enjoyed for years to come.